The present invention relates to a steering wheel equipped with an airbag device, which comprises a ring portion, a pad portion and the airbag device disposed in the pad portion.
Conventionally, a steering wheel comprising a ring portion to be griped by a driver, a pad portion coupled to the ring portion via a spoke portion and located at a central portion of the ring portion, and an airbag device disposed in the pad portion is known. In the conventional steering wheel, there are provided tear grooves having a V-shaped cross section, which are formed, for example, in a H shape, at a center of a cover member of the pad portion. Herein, when a bag portion of the airbag device is inflated, the above-described tear grooves of the cover member are torn off and an opening portion is formed. The bag portion comes out of the opening portion and is fully inflated.
Also, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-224145, the airbag device comprising the bag portion (so-called donut type of airbag) that is accommodated in the pad portion substantially in a ring shape, when viewed from a driver's head, and operative to inflate substantially in a ring shape toward the driver' head at a vehicle frontal crash. Herein, part of the cover member of the pad portion that corresponds to a central portion of the bag portion does not open and a peripheral portion of that opens so as to form the opening portion substantially in a ring shape for the bag portion inflating. And, inside the part of the cover member that does not open (generally, at the center of the pad portion) is provided an accessory such as a hone or an emblem.
Herein, the above-described conventional airbag device equipped with the above-described donut type of airbag has not performed its advantages fully yet, so there is some room to make improvements from a driver's protection point of view.